Yves Saint Laurent’s Unapologetically Luxurious Cabin in the Woods

WHEN A couturier retreats to a cabin in the woods, he can’t be expected to do it like Thoreau or the Unabomber or your intense, off-the-grid uncle. For a legendary designer like the late Yves Saint Laurent, a threadbare, survivalist aesthetic couldn’t cut it. Unsurprisingly, Saint Laurent opted instead for a rustic structure with a glamorous, cultured interior.

His cabin of stained glass and cedar sits a woodsy ten-minute walk from Château Gabriel in Normandy, the neo-Gothic manor house where he lived and entertained with...